Moonlight and Angel Wings
by tsutsuji
Summary: Once in a while, Murata gets a reminder that he is not the only one on Earth who came from another world. Crossover with Saint Beast, Murata x Rei pairing.


Title: Moonlight and Angel Wings

Fandom: crossover, Saint Beast x Kyo Kara Maou

Pairing: Murata Ken x Suzaku no Rei (implied Murata x Yuuri and Luca x Rei)

Rating: PG13. (sorry it's not higher. they wouldn't let me go into detail...)

Warnings: Implied m/m, a bit of angst, WAFF/fluff?. Too much symbolic vagueness. Not beta'd.

Word count: right around 2000.

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Saint Beast or any part of Kyo Kara Maou. I'm not making any money from writing this.

Notes: mainly for Starrose17, of course 3 and for 15_pairings using the prompt "Mind Games" because of Kouki Miyata x Kouki Miyata pairing.

Takes place just before the start of KKM and near the end of the first Saint Beast TV series.

Sometimes, every second or third lifetime or so, Murata was reminded that there were people in the world who were stranger than he was, some of them even less at home in this world, and even more lonely for it.

The lovely young - man, he decided after a brief moment of uncertainty - with sad eyes and long, gleaming, violet-colored hair, whom he happened to see very early one morning, was one of these strangers. He thought so on his first glimpse of the other through the trees, as he walked along a wooded path on the grounds of an obscure little temple. Even at a distance, Murata noticed how the slim figure moved with astonishing grace, and how his eyes seemed locked on something distant, something far beyond the stretch of open meadow toward which he walked. It was that graceful movement and the look in the eyes, more than the lavender hair or the unusual red robe, that gave Murata the sense that this was someone else who remembered a life in another world, just as he did.

That was before the figure stepped out of the woods into the open, and a pair of gleaming, white, feathered wings unfurled.

It might not have been the most astonishing thing Murata had ever seen in all his many lives, but it was enough to make him gasp in surprise and stumble forward to get a more certain view. The angel - the word that leaped to his mind certainly seemed to fit the image - paused, and turned, brow furrowed as he gazed back into the shadows of the trees. The wings disappeared, to Murata's dismay, but his nearly dormant magical senses tingled with sudden awareness of carefully shielded power. Now that he knew what to look for, he could almost see the glow of it as a pale lavender aura surrounding the other man.

Murata smiled sheepishly, stepped forward and waved.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spy on anyone," he said, as disarmingly as a schoolboy wandering through the grounds of a tiny woodland temple at dawn could be. It took a moment to remember how to call up a little of his own deeply hidden power and let it radiate softly around himself for the other to notice. Not that he could activate it if he wanted to; on his own, his power was entirely passive, without a certain other person to trigger it. He merely meant it as a sign of their shared difference with the ordinary world around them. Anyone with any sense of magic would know it wasn't a threat.

"The wings are beautiful," he said, as the violet-haired young man continued to study him intently but without alarm. "It must be lovely to be able to fly..."

He was surprised to hear the wistfulness in his own voice, as if the idea of flight somehow reminded him of something he'd once had that he'd lost. He was less surprised to see the wince of pain cross the other man's face; clearly he _had_ lost something - Paradise itself, perhaps. The words "fallen angel" came to Murata's mind, and yet they didn't seem to fit this beautiful, delicate individual at all. There was nothing even remotely demonic in the stranger's aura.

The angel glanced back once at the open sky, with nearly the same look of remembered regret and doubt with which Murata sometimes found himself looking into still pools of water. He guessed that the flight he'd interrupted was not merely an exercise to stretch an angel's wings, but to soar for a while in memories - and an angel's memories must stretch back even farther than his own.

"Who are you?" the angel asked, turning away from the open space resolutely and stepping back into the woods toward Murata. His voice, though soft, came clear as a bell through the trees. "You are not an ordinary human, are you?"

"I am, actually," Murata said with a shrug and a smile, prodding his glasses up higher on his nose. It was basically true, in this lifetime anyway - at least for now. "I'm Murata Ken - Muraken, or just Murata if you like," he added. "The only thing special about me is that I remember who I was in a past life."

That was a bit of an oversimplification, really. The angel looked a little skeptical, but let it pass.

"I'm Rei," he said, with a small bow of his head, in a surprisingly humble manner for someone with the power Murata thought he could sense, not to mention a glorious pair of wings.

"I haven't been around humans very much," Rei went on, now tipping his head to the side thoughtfully as he studied Murata again. "Isn't it unusual for you to have magical power? It surely isn't Black Magic..."

As he spoke, he came toward Murata, gazing at him closely as if curiosity had overtaken caution. Murata decided to give in to his own fascination as well. It was impossible not to be drawn to such a beautiful young man, and it had been a very long time - lifetimes, in fact - since he'd met anyone else with any kind of magic, especially someone who was even more otherworldly than himself.

He explained as well as he could, although he could see that the angel was more puzzled than enlightened by his description of another world. In his eagerness to be understood for once, Murata let out more than he intended to of the reasons behind his long, long memories and his own mostly dormant powers.

That much, at least, Rei seemed to understand.

"You desire to save your friend who fell into darkness," he said quietly, nodding. "There's hope for him, then, if you keep him in your heart and stay true..."

It occurred to Murata that Rei might as well be talking to himself.

"I'm certain of it," Murata said firmly. He wasn't always certain, as a matter of fact; doubt was always lurking, right alongside his confidence in his ancient self's elaborate plan. But for Rei's sake, at the moment, he only allowed for faith.

"Have you come to earth to save someone as well?" he asked.

The angel's brow furrowed. Murata guessed it was as much of a brooding look as that delicate face could ever hold. In a soft, halting voice, distant with memories, Rei told Murata about his mission here with his companion angels, and their fear that it was some of their own kind who were manipulating others to do evil.

Murata thought he understood a great deal more than Rei said out loud.

By the time they were both done telling their stories, they were sitting side by side on a moss-covered log. They both fell silent when Rei was done. It was peaceful on the temple grounds; wind sighed in the evergreen boughs, and a few birds twittered softly in the green shadows above them. Rei lifted his eyes toward them, and smiled softly as he listened to their little voices.

Murata watched his face for a moment. Rei's expression was peaceful as he listened to the birds chatter, but he had seen glimpses of a fierce, determined love and loyalty in it as he spoke, and more distress than such a beautiful face should be capable of showing.

"Your wings are so beautiful," Murata said, after awhile. He let his voice fall into a wistful sigh as he gazed over at the edge of the field where he had first noticed Rei. "It must be a wonderful feeling to soar in the sky above the city."

"It is," Rei said, with a demure dip of his head at the compliment. But even that seemed to bring a memory to mind, and he looked out at the open sky with the same sadness Murata had first seen in his eyes. "But it can be lonely at times, as well."

"I would love to watch you fly," Murata said.

Rei looked startled for a second, then grateful as he turned to Murata and nodded. They walked to the edge of the woods, and Murata stood and watched with his heart soaring while Rei opened his glorious white wings and glided up into the sky.

After that morning, they met again often in the woods of the little temple, some instinct or magic drawing each of them back to the place at the same time. They shared more stories of their worlds, their hopes and memories told in soft, wondering voices. Murata knew Rei was as astonished as he was to find himself confiding so much to a stranger. Sometimes Rei stretched out his wings and flew while Murata watched the magical sight from the edge of the trees; at other times, they simply sat in silence together.

After a while, there was a day when Murata took Rei's hand and held it, and watched beautiful, golden eyes fall closed with a sigh as he leaned up to kiss soft lips, and on that one day they soared in flight together.

The next time they met, near sunset several days later, Rei's face was more troubled than usual when Murata found him at the edge of the meadow. His golden eyes seemed dark as he stared across the open sky at the ghostly white moon, nearly full as it rose while the sun sank beyond the trees behind them.

"Things have started to happen, haven't they?" Murata asked, gently, with a sympathetic smile. "I think they're about to start happening for me as well," he added, when Rei only nodded sadly.

Murata had been trying to decide whether to tell his angel friend about his own concerns, hoping to puzzle through the mixed feelings he had about the turn his plans seemed to have taken. He could hardly believe the charming, clumsy, black-haired baseball-boy with the streak of righteous temper could actually be the culmination of his hopes and plans; he knew he was already strongly drawn to his oblivious classmate, but he didn't dare think how much his heart might be blinded by hope. There were ripples starting to form in the barrier between the worlds, and he knew he was going to find out soon whether his elaborate plan had gone wildly astray or not.

He could see that Rei had too many worries of his own, though. One of his companion angels, his oldest and dearest friend, had been injured in a battle and had taken many days to recover. The more he and his friends learned about who must be behind the attacks, the less Rei wanted to say about it.

Murata took Rei's hand while they watched the moon rise, and then he watched the beautiful wings unfold and let himself forget his worries while he watched the angel soar in the moonlight. When they held each other close afterward, dappled by moonlight under the trees, there was nothing left to be said in words between them.

They didn't say anything at all when they parted ways at dawn. For an immortal Angel and a soul who had passed through many lives, time passed differently, but only time would show whether they each brought the one he loved out of darkness or followed him into it in the end. Murata guessed that they might not meet again after today as their stories, which seemed to have paused while they met, now continued to unfold. Even if they didn't, as he prepared for the long awaited return to his own world it was good to know that he was not quite so alone in this one.

the end....


End file.
